Somewhere 5 or 6 or 8 years ago I developed a terrible habit that I have been fighting ever since with no luck. After my right arm (only) enters the water, as soon as I begin my pull, instead of pulling back, it immediately sweeps straight outward before starting to come back. I have tried everything I can think of (which isn’t a lot) to break this habit. Mainly what I try are various one-arm drills, where I go very slowly, stare right at the hand, and concentrate on starting the pull straight back. But it doesn’t matter how slowly I go or how much I think about it while staring right at the arm, that movement is apparently just so engrained in my muscle memory that I simply cannot make my arm not shoot outward. And of course the harder I swim the worse it gets. I am obviously losing a great deal of forward propulsion and wasting effort by pushing water out to the side like that, but I just cannot stop myself from doing it. The only other thing I have thought of to try is some band exercises on dry land. When I do those with the elastic there to fight against I do pull staight back - but it doesn’t translate at all when I get in the water.
Anybody ever have or seen this issue or know of a drill, or maybe a thought process to try and rid me of this?
Yes, as I said I can do it with tubing. And as I sit here at my desk at work (fortunately no one is around to watch me) I just tried and of course I can pull my right arm straight back without any problem. I’m pretty sure I know what you’re going to say - as I recall you telling someone recently in a similar swim thread, then JUST DO IT. Just think about it and pull it straight back, because you know you can. Believe me, I have been trying for years. In the water, for whatever reason, I simply am unable to pull it back without going outward first.
one thing you might try is doing catch up drills. when your hands come together at the front, pause a couple of beats then start your pull back. you’ll have the left hand out there as a reference point.
i dunno if that’ll actually work, but it’s probably worth a try.
Yes, as I said I can do it with tubing. And as I sit here at my desk at work (fortunately no one is around to watch me) I just tried and of course I can pull my right arm straight back without any problem. I’m pretty sure I know what you’re going to say - as I recall you telling someone recently in a similar swim thread, then JUST DO IT. Just think about it and pull it straight back, because you know you can. Believe me, I have been trying for years. In the water, for whatever reason, I simply am unable to pull it back without going outward first.
You might try just standing in the shallow end, get into the prone swim position while standing, reach out with your right arm, and do a pull very slowly. So slowly that there is almost no motion involved. See if you can do that. See if you can repeat it. Try speeding it up very gradually. The purpose is to do the motion, not pull water. See if there comes a point where it starts to go outward. Focus on that point and determine why that is happening at that point. Work on that point until it doesn’t happen. If you can’t overcome that point, then it may be that you are one of those people whose proprioception is sub-par: you just can’t get your body to do what you want it to do. You won’t be the first.
You’ve got to drill drill drill, both dryland and in water, and WITHOUT trying to pull with power.
The drills will help you establish the correct pattern ONLY if you do them concentrating on FORM, and don’t just start scooping water to get to the other end. You’re re-wiring your brain and muscles; until that re-wiring is imprinted (which can take a couple of weeks to months, depending on your diligence), as soon as you start to apply power, your muscles with revert back to what they “know” best (i.e., what is easiest for them). As you describe, your muscles have developed a very particular movement. You’ve got to focus and be patient.
There are dozens of drills that would probably help, but the one that pops into my mind is the simple single arm drill, but if you can, do it in the lane with the wall on your problem arm side. Get elbow-width away (you’re grazing the wall with your elbow straight out from your shoulder) and concentrate on keeping your hand under your elbow, fingers pointed down. Don’t look at the hand, that will just cause more problems. FEEL. Anchor your hand in the water out in front of you, and try to keep your hand in place in the water; move your body past your hand. At no point should your hand go outside of your elbow. As your hips move past the hand, thumbstrike your thigh before recovering. SMOOTH & RELAXED, don’t let your hand hit the wall.
Thanks Ken. Don’t think I’ve tried it specifically like that. I’ll give it a shot. Your last statement kind of bummed me out though. I’ve begun to think that lately but I figure anyone should be able to do this with the right thought process or practice, so I came here so all you swimmer types could convince me otherwise. Seems so simple you know? JUST PULL YOUR DAMN ARM BACKWARD YOU IDIOT! How hard could that be, right?
Catch up drill would be a good one to try but a better way to do it would be to use something, like a dowel rod, that is as long as both of your fists placed next to each other. Grabbing onto it gives you the pause that was explained a couple of posts up and it also helps you place your hand in the correct location for entry, i.e.: not too wide. Another possible drill is one arm freestyle but not performed in the traditional manner with the non-stroking arm held in front and breathing to the stroking side. Instead, leave the non-stroking arm at your side with your hand at your hip and breathe to the non-stroking side. This will also help with your body roll while breathing. And I’ll reiterate what another poster said, when doing drills it is more important to concentrate on form than to worry about speed.
Thanks Ken. Don’t think I’ve tried it specifically like that. I’ll give it a shot. Your last statement kind of bummed me out though. I’ve begun to think that lately but I figure anyone should be able to do this with the right thought process or practice, so I came here so all you swimmer types could convince me otherwise. Seems so simple you know? JUST PULL YOUR DAMN ARM BACKWARD YOU IDIOT! How hard could that be, right?
Sorry about the bummer. I once tried to help a Kona-qualifying friend in the pool, and could not believe the stiffness in his upper body just while prone in the pool. I couldn’t get him to do the simplest sculling drill because he apparently had no concept of where his arms were and how to control them. Some people just are that way, it seems. If you never did “skill” sports growing up, say tennis or soccer or swimming, your wiring just may not be there for this. Good luck, and keep it simple. Baby steps.
Thanks Brian - I usually hate swimming in the end lane, but that sounds like a great idea, don’t know why I never thought of it. If my hand banging into the wall won’t break me of it, I suppose nothing will.
I do try all of the drills I do (which include the catch-up and one-armed drills that you and others mentioned, including the one-arm with my other arm at my side) VERY slowly when trying to work on this. I just mentioned that it gets worse the faster I go, but it is still very present drilling slowly. And I try and work on it all the time during warmup and cooldown when I am swimming slowly.
I’ve been really working on the EVF thing and that anchor feeling you mention after reading Sheila T’s book a couple of months ago. I feel like and have been told I do it pretty well with the left arm, but it’s hard to get a good grip on the water the way you want to with my right hand when it starts out with that goofy outward sweep every time.
I’m no guru by any means but have started noticing this myself. I only do it with my right arm, and coincidentally breath to the left. My thinking is that I’m unconsciously giving myself some extra pull time to get a big pull of air. To test it out I’ve started breathing on the right and this does not occur, I also feel much faster when I’m breathing to the right.
Just my experience but if you’re breathing exclusively to one side it might be worth checking into.
Without seeing your stroke, but based on the fact that you are probably stronger on your right side than left, there is probably something going on with the left side that is effecting the right. Again, without seeing your stroke.
If you’re able to get some video of yourself swimming, that’d be helpful. As others have suggested, I think there’s a lot more going on with your form than just your arm, but can’t give any input beyond what I’ve already said until I see what’s happening.
Breathing to my left is my natural side, although I breathe bilaterally (every third stroke) most of the time. When I get really winded or out of balance and bail out and take extra breaths they are most always to my left. Swimming slowly (when it still occurs) I am pretty much always every third stroked.
Since we haven’t seen you swim I guess this is just laying odds.
I’ll put my money on the fact that you are lifting your head when you breathe to the left and yor hand slipping out to the side is the equal and opposite reaction where you are (subconsciously) trying to grab some water to hold your head up.
You learned to breathe to the right as an adult and so you don’t have that old habit.
In some cases even if you have stopped lifting your head, the hand action remains.
First I’d say make sure you aren’t lifting your head. Make sure your ear is on your arm when you breathe, figuratively is not literally. Another good clue is that one eye should be underwater and one above when you breathe. A third is that the side of your head should be horizontal when you breathe, not pointing up to the ceiling.
Once that’s fixed (and it is hard to fix) then stick drill with a 2 lb dumbbell would be what I recommend to get some control over what your hand is doing. You need to be able to control what is going on. Once you have that nailed (and this again might take a while) then you can go back to your normal stroke timing and hopefully that will be that.
Actually as far as lifting my head, the opposite is true. When I breathe to my left (natural) side, my head barely comes out of the water. I don’t even really turn it, It just basically rotates out with my body and my mouth is barely out of the water, (as I believe it is supposed to) yet I am able to get a good breath. When I breathe to my right, it is much more awkward, and I actually rotate my head somewhat awkwardly and have a hard time getting a breath that way for some reason. I’ve been doing it for years but it hasn’t really gotten any better. I still breathe bi-laterally though because despite causing several issues with my stroke, for some reason that I’ve never been fully sure of, I swim a minimum of 3 secs/100 faster at any effort when I breath on both sides as opposed to one.
Can you tell me what the stick drill with the dumbbell is that you are referring to? I’m not familiar with it.
Can you tell me what the stick drill with the dumbbell is that you are referring to? I’m not familiar with it.
do catch up drill but instead of touching hands out front, you hold a light dumbbell out front and switch hands when one hand catches up to the other.
Your other option is to do the opposite, work on getting your hand in and dropping it immediately into the catch posittion. Just two options on how to get a handle on making your hand do what you are telling it to do. Though the stick drill, being a slow drill, can allow you to concentrate on deliberately making your hand move the way you want it to.
As I said, once you have your hand moving the way you want it to - go back to whatever normal stroke timing is for you.